The real costs of photo ID legislation

The most recent photo ID bill before the New Hampshire legislature (SB289) doesn't include information about the real cost of such a radical change to our centuries-old voting traditions.

The New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans has followed the photo ID issue closely, and examined federal court decisions, budgets of states with similar legislation and cost estimates presented in testimony to the our House and Senate committees over the past two years.

Courts have made it clear, education about photo ID legislation must reach every eligible voter and every person who will become eligible before the next election. A federal court blocked Georgia's photo ID bill twice, partly because of inadequate education and outreach efforts to protect their citizens' fundamental right to vote. To pass constitutional muster, states must provide for education in their photo ID bills.

New Hampshire has never had a photo ID requirement before, so there's no way even regular voters will know what kind of a photo ID will be accepted on Election Day without an education program. Citizens who don't have the right kind of photo ID will need information about how to get one.

Spending on voter education isn't like traditional campaign spending where it's not necessary to reach everyone. If the legislature passes SB 289, every eligible person in the state will need information. This has proved difficult in other states. In Tennessee, four-and-a-half months after their bill passed, 28% of people didn't know about it. Of those who knew, about half didn't know what kind of ID was acceptable. In some states, estimates are that 75% of nondrivers don't even try to vote assuming they'll be turned away.

Voter education cost estimates vary because some states have current programs that are easily expanded. Others, like New Hampshire, have to start from scratch. States considering or recently enacting photo ID laws (Texas, Missouri and North Carolina) average about 80-cents per voter per year for the first three years.

In New Hampshire, with about 1 million people eligible to vote, that's $800,000 per year for voter education on photo ID.

Election workers, especially ballot clerks, will also need extensive training about the new requirements for giving registered voters a ballot. Ballot clerks will be responsible for deciding whether voter's IDs are the right kind and whether they are valid. They'll need to know when they're supposed to challenge voters and what their legal responsibilities are.

Cities and towns will have to add election workers to prevent the hours-long delays like other states with strict photo ID requirements have. Taking 90 seconds instead of 45 seconds to check off a voter will double the time it takes to check in voters.

Other costs include $9,000 for the DMV to update software and $10 per voter photo ID ($3 for materials, $7 for mailing, labor and overhead).

The Secretary of State has to pay for each voter photo ID. Estimates of how many people will need one vary from the Secretary of State Gardner's 50,000 to the League of Women Voters' 42,000 to a Dartmouth student survey of 28,000. Using an average 40,000, and assuming 50% of them are discouraged from even trying to vote, that leaves 20,000 voters who'll need an ID the first year with more every year afterward. A conservative estimate of the costs for 2012-2016 would be $600,000.00.

New Hampshire has only 10 DMVs open Monday through Friday. Many people have to travel two hours, with no public transportation available, to get to the nearest office. In Georgia, because of a lack of easily accessible DMVs, the courts required that the state travel to the voters to provide them with voter photo IDs.

We believe there will be other costs, especially for cities and towns. The House Election Law Committee owes it to our citizens to properly study the costs of a photo ID bill and attach an accurate fiscal note to SB 289.